


Lightning Strikes Relentless

by WynterTwylight



Category: The Flash (Comics), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Arcades, Car rides, F/M, Quickwest, i have unresolved feels, it's the speedforce, lightning storms, maybe canon-compliant, moments in the speedforce, season 2 finale, speedsters, squint harder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-04
Updated: 2016-10-10
Packaged: 2018-08-19 11:19:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8204116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WynterTwylight/pseuds/WynterTwylight
Summary: In the wake of the Particle Accelerator Explosion 2.0, Jesse wakes up from her coma and goes outside of S.T.A.R. Labs, to find Wally West wanting to take her to his favorite arcade in Starling City. If only it were so easy...





	1. Take Me to the Edge

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all! I wrote this a few weeks after Season 2 ended because I had some unresolved feels from that finale. I should have edited it and published it a long time ago... but better late than never right? Thanks to Cardinalstar for giving this a look over <3

Once Caitlin had cleared Jesse Wells to be able to go home after waking up from her brief coma—compared to Barry’s, that is—Wally West had immediately demanded to take her to his favorite arcade in Starling City.

Wally met up with Jesse outside of S.T.A.R. Labs, and she nearly shrieked when he spoke since she hadn’t seen him where he was standing. In the shadows. Like a ghost.

“Oh thank goodness, it’s just you.” Jesse said, clutching her jacket while she caught her breath. “But don’t startle me like that!”

“What are you up to right now?” He walked out of the shadows so he could see her more clearly, and so that she could do the same.

“Why do you ask?” She retorted, raising an eyebrow inquisitively.

“Because you just woke up from a coma, and I like arcade games, and if I remember correctly, back where we were stuck in the braille room, you confessed that you also liked arcade games…”

She nodded. “Go on.”

“And there is a great Arcade in Starling that one of my racing mates showed me. It’s also open 24/7” He said.

“But I’m leaving soon, to go back to, you know…” Her voice trailed off.

“To go back to Earth-2, I know. That’s why we have to go _right now_.” Wally ushered her in the direction of his car, “We won’t be gone long. Promise.”

Jesse’s eyes widened. They couldn’t just _leave_ Barry, Caitlin and Cisco to fend for themselves, not at a time like this when they needed them. And she _definitely_ couldn’t leave her father…

…But at the same time, it had been a long time since Jesse has done _anything_ fun. Months, which felt like years… trapped in a goddamn cage like an animal, left confused and starving in the dark… only to get free and go into a coma not weeks after. It didn’t help that her last memory before the darkness of that coma was just barely escaping that _fucking_ braille room that _didn’t even have a normal door_. It was just like the one in her dad’s bunker back inside her Earth’s S.T.A.R. Labs: annoying, stupid, and difficult to crack.

Yeah, Jesse could use some fun, and Wally did say they wouldn’t be gone _too_ long. But still…

“I can’t just leave my _dad_ back there,” Jesse said.

“He will be fine for a few hours, they all will,” Wally said, “If something goes wrong we can just drive back. We would be the ones in danger.”

“You’re asking me to put my neck on the line for an arcade?” Jesse asked. When Wally didn’t know what to say, she smiled, “Honestly, given everything that’s happened lately, I need to get outside more.”

“So what you’re saying is—” Wally began.

He saw a smile creep across Jesse’s face before she said,“—fuck it, let’s go”

Wally impulsively grabbed Jesse’s hand, intent on directing her towards his car. He stopped short, however, when he felt a distinct _buzz_ go through his fingers.

He looked down at the same time Jesse did—had she felt it too?—to see a glowing golden thread that was far too reminiscent of electricity run across his skin and then _under_ it. It looked almost like slow lightning, which—

“Did you see—” Wally began.

“—yeah, I saw that.” Jesse finished.

They stared at each other for a long moment. Then Jesse started laughing, and Wally joined in, the ease of giggling overcoming both of them. Wally would have _killed_ anyone who saw him laughing like such a hopeless idiot, but this was _Jesse Wells,_ and she was leaving soon, leaving so very soon.

So he shrugged—because at this point, there were few surprises left to be had—and pulled Jesse out of a laugh and dragged her joyous self towards his car.

“We can ask Caitlin about it when we get back.” Jesse suggested. She’d been thinking about the slow bolt in her skin. “I’m sure it’s a weird coma thing?” _and I’ll ask Barry the second I get some free time to do so,_ she added silently.

“Yeah, maybe. We will see.” Wally said.

They were on the road to Starling within the hour, and they _definitely_ decided not to tell Harry about the weird touch they shared as well as their sudden adventure. Harry, who Wally had to remind himself almost constantly was still her dad; a dad who went to the ends of the earth to save her from Zoom, a dad who risked his life for Barry numerous times, but also a dad who had killed once to keep his daughter safe, which had Wally scared out of his mind. He could see the conversation now…

_“And West, I swear, if you so much as_ ever _hurt her, emotionally, physically anything—”_

_Harry paused abruptly to dramatically cock the pulse rifle that he always had on him_ somewhere, _like does he ever let that thing out of his sight?_

_Wally thought way too much into this and gulped._

_“—I will make sure you never have the chance to see her ever again_.”

It probably wasn’t helping that Harry didn’t know about this particular _road trip_ of theirs. He tried not to think too hard about what Harry would do if he found out what they were doing. Wally briefly wondered if the phrase “It’s better to ask for forgiveness instead of permission” existed on Earth-2. The thought that it might not sent a shudder up his spine, and he briefly shook his head to get rid of the feeling.

He quickly distracted himself by remembering he still had Jesse in his car with him now, and she was _happy_ and _smiling_ in little periodic moments _._ She wasn’t always happy, she couldn’t be, but after everything she had been through, and after everything the both of them were sure to go through in the future—if the past was any indication—she deserved to be happy for one night, and all Wally wanted to do was make her smile over and over and over again, forever.

_“Jesse, I need to tell you something before you leave,”_ was what he wanted to say.

“Can you pull up the radar?” was what he actually said.

“Already ahead of you,” Jesse said, “There’s just a big red spot and it…might last a while,” Jesse said the last part with a fraction of hesitation, and Wally sighed in acknowledgement.

“You want me to pull over.”

“Ideally, yes,” she replied.

“Or we could just keep driving and pull over when it gets bad,” Wally said.

Silence.

“If it starts raining can we pull over, okay?” Jesse said, offering a compromise.

“I can settle for that.” Wally agreed, and sped up the car a little bit as returned to looking back down to her phone.

The dark cloud approached closer to the couple in the car, and Wally checked his mirrors for the fifth time in the last five minutes. There were no other cars in sight. But what he did see was a hot white sky behind them, and a black, cold _mess_ in front. At least there were no cops to pull Wally over for speeding back here, because boy was he going _fast_.

“Hey Wally?”

“Yeah?” He replied hesitantly.

“My phone is telling me there’s a severe thunderstorm warning now. We need to like, go find somewhere to hide,” Jesse began before she read out the official warning issued by the local weather service, followed by a brief scientific explanation as to why they should “get the hell off the road _”_ complete with sources of Earth-2 studies that Wally had no desire to read “when they got back”.

When she had finished, she expected Wally to protest, to insist that they could go a little farther, that it still wasn’t raining yet, that he saw no lightning and heard no thunder so there was nothing to worry about.

Instead he did none of those things, and just tapped her on the shoulder.

Jesse locked her phone and looked up, to see Wally pointing to a swirling vortex at the end of the road, preceded by a rapidly approaching wall of water, and lightning that was striking very, _very_ close to the car. All of this was nearing them rapidly, and the fear both of them felt in that moment could be cut like a knife.

_There’s no one out here to help us, what if this is some metahuman Zoom sent after us,_ Wally thought in horror. _What if he_ knew, _oh God I was so_ dumb _and now Jesse is going to get hurt and if I live Wells is going to_ kill _me because_ —

“Wally, get off the road _now,_ ” Jesse ordered, and Wally’s thoughts left him instantly, her voice calm but stern, and it reminded Wally all too much of her father, which was enough to kick him into action.

To say Wally hit the brakes would be an understatement. He _slammed_ the brakes, putting his weight into it, and fearing for his life as he did so, because the goddamn _rapture_ was coming to get them.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, _fuck!”_ Wally cursed as his car went skidding and spun out when the wall of water hit them, hydroplaning across the road, and then just entirely off of it altogether. Even though Wally quickly took control—after all, he was trained to deal with these kinds of things—he could only do so much to steady the car as they drove nose first into a ditch. But at least it wasn’t a tree, right?

“ _Fuck!”_ Wally yelled one last time as the force of the crash yanked him forward. His seatbelt pulled him back forcefully, sure to leave bruises, and his head snapped back and hit the headrest as a result. Jesse let out a shriek of gibberish as her knees violently met the dash in front of her hard enough to cause severe contusions, but not enough to break. They were both face first in deflating airbags a fraction of a second later, which had taken the brunt of the blows that the seatbelts couldn’t hold them back from.

“Jesse, are you—”

“Wally, is everything—”

“—okay?” They both said in unison.

They probably would have laughed if not for the pounding rain over head that was buffeting the windows of the car, which had survived the crash, albeit barely.

Then Jesse was letting out a pained noise, the adrenaline and endorphins weaning away.

“Wally, things…. Hurt.” She told him, trying to move.

“I know, I know it does. I’m hurt too,” Wally was desperately searching for how to get them both out of this. Who could he call—

His thoughts were interrupted when Jesse did, in fact, keep talking.

“But, it’s… getting better.”

“Well, that’s good” Wally said, confused, maybe she could walk, once the storm passed. He wasn’t sure if _he_ could walk, but he would cross that bridge when he got to it. He needed to take stock of his injuries _and_ Jesse’s, and he needed to do it _soon._

“No, Wally, I mean I have a gash on my leg and it’s already heal—”

They were cut off by the sound of deafening thunder close by, far too close. And the wind sped up, and Wally was sure that yes, that was a tree branch that just fell on the roof of the car, and yes, that was absolutely another one hitting the backside of the car.

Wally knew for certain in that moment that the two of them were _fucked._

“Jesse! Get down as best as you can!” Wally yelled, ripping his seatbelt off of himself with the emergency seatbelt cutter he had stored in the glove box all these years in the hope that he would never have to use it.

Jesse dropped so that her chest was to her knees, and she faced the floor. Wally threw himself on top of her bent form, knowing it might not have been the best idea. But if something was going to cave in through the roof, it would have to go through him first, and if _that_ happened, well it might save Jesse, and that was enough for Wally to be _stupid._

However, he didn’t make it far, because the car was abruptly assaulted with blinding white light that seemed brighter than the sun. It was coming down from the sky, around the car, threatening to cave in through the sunroof.

With eyes wide in horror, Wally realized he was staring at a lightning bolt, in slow motion.

And just _stared._

Because it was moving so _slowly._

He even blinked, pinched himself, to see if he was dreaming.

And it was quiet, so _quiet._ Except for—

“Wally what’s going— _HOLY SHIT!”_ Jesse yelped and sat up straight, promptly bumping her head on the dented roof of the car. And the lightning was still moving at a crawl. Jesse saw the light outside of the car, slowly creeping down the sides, and she reached out her hand to touch it—

“Jesse we need to get out of here. _Now,”_ Wally commanded in the best voice he could muster, and she pulled back her hand. Good. He wouldn’t have to grab it, “Avoid the white! It’s lightning.”

Jesse nodded quick, but not after giving him an incredulous look of disbelief and understanding, and with all the strength she had, she pushed open the door. Jesse ducked under the descending electricity, as did Wally on his side, and the two of them met eyes again, full of fear and worry.

Then Wally said the only thing he could think of at a time like this.

“Run!” He screamed.

And boy _did_ she.

Jesse didn’t know what was happening, she started running, just how her dad taught her in grade school, near perfect form, and then suddenly everything around her got _loud_ and _wet_ and _bright_ and everything was moving too fast, and something was pushing her forward, wanting her to run faster and faster and faster.

She made the mistake of looking around, and saw Wally running close behind her, looking just as confused as she, but it distracted her enough that she tripped over something—a stone, a stick, the ground itself?—and went to a literal skidding halt in the field they had both run into.

Wally crashed into her, and they both went tumbling down into the wet muddy grass together. Wally ended up partially on top of her, and he sat up immediately, then looked down at her prone form as her eyelids fluttered open.

“Jesse? Can you hear me?” Wally said.

“Yes! I can hear you!” She yelled slightly hysterically. Wally pulled her into a frantic hug, and they were standing within seconds, reality crashing in.

Jesse immediately feared the worst. She couldn’t be like Barry, she _couldn’t_ be. That would mean that she would have to deal with Zoom, and she didn’t know if she was strong enough for that.

She would have to deal with other metas too, and could she still go back to her normal life on Earth-2? Her dad had _promised_ her she could go back to her life there, with all of her friends, the ones Zoom had spared, at least.

And Wally? Was he a speedster this whole time? Like Barry?

“Wally! Why didn’t you tell me you were like the Flash?” She was careful not to throw out Barry’s name. That was not her secret to tell.

“Why didn’t _you_ tell me you were like the Flash?” Wally retorted.

“Because I didn’t know until now!” She yelled back, and hated that she was forced to yell despite how close they were. Not much could be done about that though, the thunder and rain were too loud. The rain, the lightning, the _tornado—_ “Wally!” Jesse held his attention, and she thought back to the adventures Barry told her about when he first learned he had powers, and what he could do, even as a beginner. She couldn’t believe she was about to say this, “That tornado! We can stop it!”

Wally threw his arms up. “How the _fuck_ can we do that?” Wally _was_ intrigued though, he had to admit, if the tornado kept going, kept building up speed… it might hurt someone, and the thought of that happening was crippling.

At the least, Wally wanted revenge on that tornado for making him total his car, his precious, glorious, _sexy_ car.

He fully focused on Jesse, which wasn’t hard, but he put more effort than normal into it this time.

“If we run in the opposite direction around it, it will destroy the wind funneling pattern and hopefully all we will be left with is a big storm that can work it’s way out!” She shouted, recalling the details Barry had told her so long ago.

“But how on earth do we run that fast again?” Wally yelled.

“I don’t know!”

“Well how does the Flash do it, since we seem to be _so_ much like him?”

“As if I would know! We just have to _try,_ Wally!” Jesse screamed, her lungs sore, jeans tattered, shirt torn, and Wally just now noticed her abdomen was soaked in blood.

“Jesse what’s wrong with your—” Wally started.

“Run _,_ Wally, _Run_!”

Wally couldn’t say no to that.

He started running, not sure how to go faster, save for just… going faster.

Surprisingly, it… worked. He just kept going quicker and quicker, his feet hitting the ground, and soon he saw Jesse next to him, looking at him with a mixture of glee and horror.

“Run with me!” She yelled. “I’m going straight for the tornado!”

Wally nodded, and then followed her. It wasn’t that it was _easy,_ per se, but running this fast felt _natural._

The next few minutes passed in—ironically—a blur. In short, Wally chased Jesse around the swirling vortex—because for some reason she was faster than he—until the whole system collapsed in a _whoosh!_ that Wally would never forget. The sound of a tornado crippling, then falling, and _ending,_ because of _him,_ that’s a new one.

The fact that it even _worked_ boggled his mind. He had just stopped a tornado. With the most beautiful girl in the world alongside him. That was something else.

The storm soon calmed, and Wally took Jesse’s hand in his won, and took her over to his crashed car to sit. She climbed up to the roof, her leg flush against his own, watching the clouds part to reveal the sky once more.

“Jesse,” Wally looked over at her, voice slightly worried, “Your side, how is it?”

She checked her injuries: the gash in her leg, her formerly bleeding side, the other miscellaneous lacerations she sustained from the crash, all gone. _Exactly_ like Barry. “Healed, everything is. Yours?”

Wally’s thoughts were slightly incredulous when he realized his own injuries were also healed, “The same, but how?”

Wally was about to go into shock.

“It’s the Speedforce.” Jesse said. Her voice was sad, broken, muted.

“The speed- _what now?_ ” Wally looked at her.

“We have a lot to talk about. But what’s in us. It’s called the Speedforce.” Jesse said. “My dad talks about it a lot, when he talks about Ba—The Flash,” Jesse cursed inwardly, almost having given Barry’s secret identity up. _Not my secret to tell,_ she recited for the fifth time today, “The healing, the speed, the… time dilation.”

“So we just happened to get the Flash’s powers?” Wally asked. “How?”

“I don’t know.” She said, staring down at the roof of the car, picking aimlessly at the paint that was now scratched and destroyed in some places. “We should talk to my dad. He might know.”

“Your _dad_ is going to shoot me with that gun of his when he finds out I basically kidnapped you to go to an arcade with me, crashed my car with you in it, and almost killed you in the process.”

“I went willingly!” She shouted back at him.

“I don’t think he will see it that way…” Wally insisted.

“Well he will find out regardless, and ummm… there’s some other things we need to talk about too.” She said.

“Like what kinds of things?” Wally asked quietly.

“Things that I thought I _could_ live without, but decidedly can’t. Not after what just happened,” she said, and was met with an expected but very confused look from Wally.

She kissed him.

And he kissed her back.


	2. Then Push me Over

On some level, Wally was glad that he and Jesse could run back home, because there was no way he could drive them back. Just one look at his car told him it was totaled, and as many mechanics as he knew, the idea of _paying_ for the damages wasn’t ideal.

Wally stayed in the shadows when they returned to S.T.A.R. Labs, but made sure to keep an eye on Jesse in the coming days. She tried to get a minute edgewise with her father, but he was either running simulations with Cisco or surrounded by too many people. She wasn’t about to admit she’d been kissed by the Speed Force in front of the entirety of Team Flash. She just hoped that making the choice to wait a little longer was the right one.

~

Zoom’s metahuman army started showing up. Black Siren destroyed Mercury Labs. Jesse met this Earth’s Tina McGee—the Tina she knows back on her earth is _far_ funnier, though equally smart—and Team Flash brought her into their steadily growing team. But as smart as Tina and the others were, she was having more and more trouble trusting them to help her and Wally, and if Jesse was being honest with herself, she wasn’t sure they had the tools to figure it out before time ran out in their battle with Zoom.

She wanted to ask Barry. She actually thought about that a _lot_ … but that would mean giving his identity up to Wally, and that could end very badly, very quickly, especially with Barry being so “high” from everything.

But the world kept on turning.

~

At dinner, Tina and Henry shared a few intimate conversations. Jesse and Wally could enjoy one another’s company without Harry hanging over them and watching their every move. Joe and Iris and Barry could have some well deserved “family” time.

“The second he wakes up, I’ll tell him. I promise.” Jesse told Wally when they got a moment alone together during the get together. “Until then, stay low. Please.”

“You better be right about this.”

She knew she was. But not because of any intrinsic accuracy, she just had no choice in the matter. She _had_ to be right about this, because it was life or death she was talking about here. She and Barry and Wally could stop Zoom together, they could, right?

But she needed her dad, and his advice. It could wait another hour, and in the meantime, the food was good and she could finally just rest with Wally without fear of flashbacks to her time with Zoom, or the constant fear that he was around the corner just waiting to kill her again. In all seriousness, it was the first time in a long time that Jesse let herself _relax,_ even if it was just for a little while.

~

Zoom showed, and he took Barry’s father.

Wally stared.

Jesse’s heart dropped.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to be.

“Did you know?” Wally hissed at her after he pulled her away from the group, “Did you know _this whole time that Barry was the Flash and not tell me?”_

“I was sworn to secrecy! My dad—”

“—your dad _nothing,_ Jesse!” Wally shouted, “He could _help_ us with—” he paused, trying to articulate, and resolved to lowering his voice, “—you know, the _thing._ ”

“This is bigger than both of us,” Jesse said, determined.

They heard about Henry’s death, his _murder,_ by _Zoom,_ and the whole world shattered.

Again.

Jesse was so _sick_ of it.

~

Wally found Jesse crying later in a far corner of S.T.A.R. Labs. She sat on the floor curled into a ball, back to the cement walls, body fraught with shakes and sobs that screamed of true anguish. She was so _tired_ of Zoom messing with her friends, her _family,_ and how he just did it for _kicks,_ for _fun—_

Wally knelt down, and touched her head gently, urging her to look up at him, to acknowledge his presence, to trust that he was there for her, that she was safe—though it would be a long time before she believed that.

“We could have saved him. If I hadn’t been so stupid.” Jesse said quietly. “I should have told Barry, and he could have helped, maybe a little. We could have worked together, and then Henry might be—”

Her voice was cut off by another cry tearing itself from her throat.

Wally decided against his better judgment, said ‘fuck it’ for the fourth time today, and flat out pulled Jesse into his arms, and kept running his fingers through her hair. She let him, seemingly okay with letting herself be held.

“It’s not your fault. This is _Zoom_ we are talking about here. Don’t blame yourself.” Wally told her, trying to be strong. “And even if we were all there, Zoom is still faster than all of us. The Flash, _I mean Barry,_ has been doing this a lot longer than we have, and he wasn’t fast enough. We wouldn’t be either. So it’s not our fault, Jesse.”

They stayed like that, crying a long time, until she fell asleep in his arms.

~

He carried her at normal speed to her cot, right next to where Harry slept, and then crept away, but not before Harry cleared his throat, causing Wally to freeze in place. Whether it was out of fear or surprise he will never know.

“Thanks.” Wells mouthed to him silently.

Wally froze. He turned, and saw one of Harry’s eyes cracked open.

He gave Jesse’s dad the OK sign, and then finished creeping away, nearly having a heart attack once he got out of the room.

~

Jesse and Wally were still debating on telling Harry and Barry anything about their powers when it was decided that they had to lock Barry away for his own safety. He was too rash, they said, and Wally and Jesse agreed, but didn’t approve of it.

Wells shot the only other speedster who had any chance of defeating Zoom in the back, and _oh_ how he _fell_.

Jesse considered talking to Barry about his speed, but decided against it. She told Wally she wanted to say something, anything, get advice. They could still help while Barry was in there.

But Wally had a better idea.

“We can’t get fast enough in time to stop Zoom, and there isn’t a way the plan the others have will work. Sure we could tell them about our speed, but we aren’t experienced.”

“So what do you suggest?” Jesse had asked.

“We let Barry out, not because of how wrong it was to put him in there, but because he is our only hope and _we_ can’t come close to fighting this battle how we can.” Wally said.

“But we have to tell them eventually. We _have_ to.”

“We will, after Zoom. If Zoom found out what we were now… Jesse I don’t want him hurting you again. I won’t let him.” Wally told her, pulling her into an embrace.

She was silent, but Wally knew she was agreeing with him.

“Okay, we can wait until after.” She pushed away from him, and he let her go. “You set Barry free, I’ll go meet up with the others. We can’t look suspiscious.”

“Sounds good.” Wally said.

“Oh, and one more thing?” Jesse said right as she was about to leave the room to rejoin the others.

“Hmmm?”

“Still don’t tell Barry. This has to stay secret, now more than ever. And we can’t use our powers, we don’t know how they work. There’s… a lot we need to learn before we mess around.”

Wally nodded, and Jesse disappeared. Wally breathed a sigh of relief at her words, because if he was being honest, he was kind of _afraid_ of having anything remotely close to the Flash’s powers.

~

Jesse and Wally watched Barry create a time remnant while fighting Zoom, they watched in horror how the remnant was destroyed. They saw how brutal Zoom was again, and Jesse grabbed Wally’s hand and locked their fingers together when no one was looking, because she was on the verge of a panic attack from just being so close to the monster for so long. If he found out she had speed, if Barry lost, he would rip it out of her, and then Wally, and then kill them both—

Wally must have noticed her tremors as a sign of something greater, and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

She squeezed back.

Barry won, of course, after Zoom was dragged to hell by the time wraiths, everyone was tired. Exhausted. Barry had dropped to his knees, knowing it was over. Jesse would have done the same, in his position, but would be eternally grateful she wasn’t.

~

“Now is _not_ the time to tell Barry.” Wally said later as he paced around Jesse’s bedroom.

“But I’m leaving soon! I have to go Wally! We aren’t going to get another chance!” Jesse yelled back.

“Well we can’t do it now, you’ve seen how he is. He needs to recover, to mourn the loss of his dad, to get over all the _shit_ that’s happened to him. Finding out that there are more speedsters in the world is the _last_ thing he wants to hear right now I assure you!” Wally replied.

“Fine, let’s make a deal.” Jesse suggested, plopping down on the bed, the fight leaving her. She was tired too. She couldn’t let herself forget that.

“And what might that be?”

“When I get back to my Earth, and _only_ when I get back to my Earth, I’ll tell my dad about us.” Jesse said. Wally started to interject, but shushed him and continued. “When the time is right _here_ , talk to Barry about us.”

“Okay.” Wally said. “Okay.” He didn’t know what else to say.

“There’s more.” She said, grabbing his arm to pull him down to sit next to her. “When you tell Barry, undoubtedly he will tell Cisco, and Cisco can bring our Earth back together. Everyone will know eventually, and we can… discuss everything else from there as a group, okay?”

Wally seemed placated at the thought.

And then was suddenly reminded that she was leaving him so soon.

“Okay, I can do that.” He said. “I also still have an arcade to show you.”

Jesse laughed, “Of course, but back to the other, do you promise me you’ll follow the plan?” Jesse said.

“I promise.” Wally said. “Now shut up and let me kiss you.”

She grinned, and met him halfway.

~

“I guess we can’t text anymore.” Wally said, trying to add levity to the conversation. She was leaving, and Wally really didn’t want her to go. He saw Jesse send him a weak smile, and a laugh, because they had shared good conversations once upon a time, before everything went to shit.

They hugged.

Harry said his goodbyes, and everyone stared at how he called Cisco by his actual name. Barry stood off in the distance, disconnected, which was understandable.

Wally didn’t look at everyone else much, he was just trying to take in every part of Jesse that he could. He didn’t know when he would see her next, and that _terrified_ him.

So he tried to hold back his emotions and worry when she stepped through the breach, and then shoved them away when she was gone.

 _She’ll come back, and everything will be okay._ He promised himself. He didn’t’ have a choice but to hope. It was all he had.

~

It was later, while everyone was calming down that Barry sat out on the steps with Iris. Wally didn’t know much about those two, but he knew not to interfere.

So he waited until Iris came back inside, and then he would step outside and see if Barry could handle the news. If not—and he would prime the waters extensively first—then fine, if so, he would divulge all, and hope that Jesse would be doing the same very, very, very soon.

He startled a little when Iris came back into the house, and he nearly ran to the door to go talk to Barry, but he forced himself to slow down, to be calm. He told himself he would do a lap around the house before he went out there, and he did.

So mustering up all the confidence he could, he put his hand on the door, and walked outside, only to see that Barry was gone.

“Barry?” He called, looked around, no answer. “Barry?” He tried again, still no answer.

Wally turned around and rejoined the others. Barry just needed some air. He would be back soon. It wasn’t out of the ordinary to have him run away and come back a few minutes later. It was _normal_ in the world Wally now lived in.

“Wally!” Joe called.

 _Later,_ he promised himself.

Wally forced out a laugh, and the world kept on turning.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I'm gideonshipsit on tumblr if you wanna chat!
> 
> ＼(^o^)／

**Author's Note:**

> Part 2 should be up soon, I just needed to post this fic _before_ season 3 premiered so I didn't feel like changing anything. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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